This past weekend greens finally got a little firmer and a little faster for the two day Summer Member/Member. Surprising to some was the sight of us doing some watering over the past few days. July is usually a time we see roots shrink. It seems that has been amplified this season with the heat waves in June, followed by record rainfall to start this month. All closely mowed turf that isn’t still slow to drain, requires a little extra TLC under certain conditions. It doesn’t take long for the grass to wilt on a 75° day with low humidity.
This morning we made a long overdue greens application of wetting agents, insecticide, fungicide and nutrients to be washed into the soil. The wetting agents will help us manage the moisture and water usage. The insecticide is targeting nematodes (microscopic worms), which recent testing showed were at or near threshold, and also Annual Bluegrass Weevil. The fungicide will combat any soil borne pathogens that may attack roots. And the nutrients will feed the soil and be readily available for uptake by the plants. This application requires a fair amount of water to reach the target, so greens may seem a little slower. Another benefit of this rinse in spray is the heads also water the greens surrounds and bunkers. Because of our irrigation system, the only way to water surrounds with sprinklers, means also watering the greens – Something we generally try to do with hose alone whenever possible. So this application results in a good deep watering for the rough around greens and bunker faces, as well as compacts the sand in bunkers. We usually use this bunker watering to spend the day in bunkers, checking depths and moving sand. The wet sand is easier to shape than when it’s dry and a little fluffy. Ideally we would have made this application about a week to ten days ago but conditions were just never conducive. It was either raining overnight, making it to wet to water in the morning. Or if it was raining in the day, it was accompanied by high winds. And if neither was happening, everything was already too wet to add more water. But today, on this Maintenance Monday we took advantage of being closed for the morning, and conditions being just right following a busy weekend of play and gave the greens a bit of a spa day. The wetting agents should activate quickly and by mid week, greens should be firming back up and ball roll will improve daily as the weather for golf for the end of July and early August looks almost too good to believe.
The wettest of areas on the course are rapidly improving and shrinking almost by the minute. This spot on 1 fairway that we are maintaining with a smaller, lighter mower, is about 1/5th the size it was last week. And this morning we were able to mow the lower portion of 5 fairway with the fairway mower for the first time in a long while. These spots are being zeroed in on for some additional off season drainage.